Senate blocks Arctic drilling

Chicago Sun Times: WASHINGTON -- Ted Stevens wore his power necktie, the one featuring the ''Incredible Hulk'' cartoon character. It is the one the Alaska senator reserves for his toughest fights.
''I hope the good Lord will help me hold my temper,'' he told colleagues as he began his final pitch for a cause he has championed for a quarter century: opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northeastern corner of Alaska to oil drilling.
An hour later he sat quietly in the Senate chamber, again disappointed. The tie didn't help.
The Senate rejected opening the Alaska refuge to oil companies, even though Stevens had maneuvered the measure onto a must-pass defense spending bill that includes money for troops as well as billions for Katrina hurricane victims.
It was a stinging defeat for Stevens, 82, one of the Senate's most powerful members, who had hoped to garner more votes by forcing senators to choose between supporting the drilling or risking the political fallout from voting against money for the troops and hurricane victims.

Majorities in both house of congress have for YEARS supported the ecologically safe, environmentally friendly drilling for oil in ANWR. The will of the people continues to be frustrated by a vocal minority of environmental extremists. Another slap in the face for the people of Alaska and another guarantee that billions more American dollars will head to the Middle East instead of the U.S. Treasury as would accrue from ANWR oil royalties.